I am sure that those responsible have their own very good reasons for organizing a tame 3-3 draw, but it's not exactly a great advertisement for team chess. What was the idea from St.Petersburg's point of view? I presume that it was decided that they were unlikely to win by a big enough score to overtake their rivals, but still, it isn't chess is it?
| Pre-round ranking | Team (White on odds) | Result | Pre-round ranking | Team |
| 10 | BelGU | 2-4 | 8 | Etude-Contact |
| 5 | Ural | 3-3 | 7 | Tomsk-400 |
| 4 | Yugra | 4.5-1.5 | 9 | Economist-SGSEU-2 |
| 1 | ShSM-64 | 3-3 | 2 | SPb Chess Fed |
| 3 | Economist-SGSEU-1 | 3.5-2.5 | 6 | Chigorin Chess Club |
Eljanov (Economist 1) lost at the beginning of his game on a technicality (did his telephone go off? or, was he just late? we'll no doubt find out in a day or so) and this put pressure on his team-mates. Two of whom eventually won, Wang Yue and Tomashevsky to ensure a narrow win over Chigorin Chess Club.
Here are the standings after round 8, with tomorrow's game remaining.
| Ranking | Team | ELO average | Match points | Game points | Top board |
| 1 | ShSM-64 | 2700 | 14 | 31.5 | Boris Gelfand 2750 |
| 2 | Economist-SGSEU-1 | 2704 | 12 | 30.5 | Wang Yue 2749 |
| 3 | SPb Chess Fed | 2700 | 12 | 29.5 | Vasily Ivanchuk 2748 |
| 4 | Yugra | 2689 | 10 | 26.5 | Alexander Grischuk 2756 |
| 5 | Ural | 2618 | 9 | 25.5 | Ian Nepomniachtchi 2656 |
| 6 | Tomsk-400 | 2687 | 8 | 26 | Ruslan Ponomariov 2737 |
| 7 | Etude-Contact | 2555 | 6 | 22.5 | Igor Khenkin 2597 |
| 8 | Chigorin Chess Club | 2584 | 6 | 19.5 | Ildar Khairullin 2617 |
| 9 | Economist-SGSEU-2 | 2548 | 3 | 16.5 | Alexander Kovchan 2595 |
| 10 | BelGU | 2493 | 0 | 12 | Alexander Ivanov 2481 |
For more information official tournament site
It will help to be able to read Russian as the English version is out-of-date!
